Carool Kersten (Haelen, 28 June 1964) is a Dutch scholar of Islam and the author and editor of eleven books. Trained as an Arabist, Southeast Asianist and scholar of Religions, he currently is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and Emeritus Reader in the Study of Islam & the Muslim World at King's College London. His research interests focus on the modern and contemporary Muslim world, in particular political and intellectual developments in both regional and global contexts. Education Carool Kersten studied Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the then still existing Institute for Languages and Cultures of the Middle East at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. He specialized in modern Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, with minors in International Law, International Relations and Indonesian. In 1987, he was awarded the academic title of doctorandus (equivalent of an MA) in Arabic Language and Culture with distinction, on the basis of a dissertation on the theory and practice of the Islamic law of treaties. After graduation he went to Egypt, where he attended the International Language Institute in Cairo. In 1988, he was admitted as a Sworn Translator by the Netherlands District Court in Arnhem. He returned to Nijmegen during a sabbatical (1995-1996) to do graduate work in philosophy. Taking another sabbatical year in 2001, he studied at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he obtained a Certificate in Thai and Southeast Asian Studies. In 2005, he moved to England in order to conduct postgraduate research at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and was awarded a PhD in the Study of Religions in 2009. In his thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Christopher Shackle and entitled 'Occupants of the Third Space: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam', he dealt with the work of three contemporary Muslim scholars, (Nurcholish Madjid, Hasan Hanafi, Mohammed Arkoun). It has since been published as Cosmopolitans and Heretics by Hurst and Oxford University Press Career Except for a sabbatical year (1995–96), from 1988 until 2003, Carool Kersten worked for the Dutch construction and engineering company Ballast Nedam Group. In 1989 he was transferred to Saudi Arabia to provide support for the company's operations in the Middle East, where he held a number of staff and project positions, including that of personnel and general services manager for the company's Middle East operations (1996–2000). After leaving